


Three times the Cluster calmed one another and one time they didn't need to

by AJ Horn (mchoule), Hananobira



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Audio Format: M4B, Audio Format: MP3, Birth, F/F, Multi, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-06-24 06:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15624657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mchoule/pseuds/AJ%20Horn, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hananobira/pseuds/Hananobira
Summary: Lito's career is taking off, Capheus has his election, and big news is about to mess with Kala's life. Lots to worry about -- but together they can do anything.





	1. Lito

Download Link: [MP3 (23 MB)](http://hananobira.parakaproductions.com/Collabs/Three%20Times.mp3) or [M4B (16 MB)](http://hananobira.parakaproductions.com/Collabs/Three%20Times.m4b)

***********

They should have fired him. Scratch that; Kit Wrangler shouldn't have hired him in the first place. Lito was a fraud; couldn't even do the audition without Sun's help. He certainly didn't belong with these amazing actors and actresses. 

Lito shook his body, trying to get into Jordi's mindset. 

"BRRRRA. Bap. Bop." 

Maybe Dani had been right and a Blake Harrington marathon hadn't been the brightest idea. Blake really deserved all of his awards; Lito couldn't compare to him. Even Hernando agreed Blake was brilliant. 

Two knocks at the dressing room's door and the voice of one of Kit's assistants came through. "Costume in 5!"

Props and manuscript made place to a Seoul park in the early morning.

"Lito." Sun said without opening her eyes or breaking her complicated yoga pose. 

Lito took a large breath and attempted to channel her tranquility without success. "I can't do it."

"Of course you can." She moved to another pose. "You've done it before."

"Not like that," Lito whined, and then he was in a dark apartment whose only light came from the TV where Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan sat on a throne among Mongolian warriors. 

"To crush your enemies," Wolfgang and Felix said in unison with the character. "see them driven before you."

Lito felt the powerful comfort and familiarity of the scene. He recognized the emotions washing over his own sense of fear and doubts as Wolfgang’s feelings. 

Lito finished with them: “...and to hear the lamentations of their women." 

Sitting next to Wolfgang, Felix burst out laughing and grabbed his friend's shoulder. Meanwhile, Wolfgang glanced at Lito and nodded at him. 

"Go on, you can't hide from this," Wolfgang said after a moment. 

Felix furrowed his eyebrows and Wolfgang mouthed Lito's name before he brought Lito back to his Hollywood dressing room. 

"I'm a fake. Did you know Sun had to do the audition for me?" 

"Only because you were busy saving her ass. A lot of us are alive and free because of you. "

"You would have managed without me." 

"Bullshit."

Someone coughed. It was Kit's assistant who had entered the room while Lito was talking with Wolfgang and she was now looking at him with an unsure glance. In the end, she shook her head. "Actors," she whispered to herself. 

"Are you ready?" She didn't wait for an answer. 

Lito hesitated a second, but Wolfgang gave him a mental nod. 

"You got two choices. You can quit and give up on your dream. Or you can _fucking_ act." Wolfgang slapped his back. "Isn't what you do best?"

Lito soaked in his confidence and nodded at Wolfgang, who went back to Berlin. 

Time to be Jordi.


	2. Capheus

"Even with a campaign full of Mandiba’s dirty tactics," the pretty TV reporter started,"the Kenya Democratic Reform Party has been growing strong since they’ve been joined by the powerhouse that Capheus Onyango has become . It was a long fight, but it seems that Onyango's commitment to the people of Kenya has paid off. The question on everyone’s lips now is: will he follow through on his anti-corruption promises? or will he be another fraud, a devil with another name?"

Around him, the crowd had stopped listening when the victory had been announced, their cheers and excitement contagious. As he glanced around the room, nodding at sensates and sapiens alike, he saw that his friends had all come to support him.

Lito hugged him from behind, smacking a huge kiss on his neck.

"WOOHOO!" Lito yelled, before going back ten thousand miles away for a romantic scene with Blake Huntington.

"Van Damned you, you did it!" Jela grabbed at Capheus’ arm, unaware of Lito. "YOU. DID. IT, mother _fucker_!"

Jela laughed and his hand patted at Capheus’ belly before he grabbed his wife by the waist, bending her backward for a passionate kiss. Capheus laughed too, letting the energy wash over him.

"Does this mean I have to call you president now?" Sun’s voice soothed as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

Capheus followed her to the apartment she had bought in Seoul after her exoneration. The new place was all clean lines and refined emptiness that was very her, yet the natural light, new greeneries and pictures of the cluster and their friends made the place look alive in a way it hadn't before the cluster’s birth.

"I never thought I would say this, but I like the silence."

"You're welcome to it anytime," she said.

Capheus nodded. "And you are welcome to my chaos anytime."

They stood in a comfortable silence as Sun smiled softly and Capheus looked at the pictures. The one they'd taken right after ridding the world of The Cannibal held special meaning for all of them.

"I can hardly believe it has only been three months." Kala smiled next to him.

Capheus felt right away that something about that smile was wrong, her worries mixing with his own.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.” Kala looked about to leave. 

"You're no bother," Sun told her sincerely, echoing Capheus’ thoughts.

“We all need to clear our head sometimes.” Capheus briefly hugged Sun. “I should be going before the media realise I'm zoning out."

"Oh, and congratulations, by the way," Kala said, suddenly realising.

"You too." He smiled and went for a hug.

He didn't quite know what he offered congratulations for, only that it felt like the right thing to say at this precise moment. He felt her relax against him as she returned the hug.

Glancing back at Sun for some Jean-Claude courage, he returned to the post-election chaos, ready to face the challenges of his new role.


	3. Kala

Kala turned off the water tap before she flushed the toilet and sat on the closed seat. She tapped her foot on the ground, constantly looking at her watch and trying not to look at the small piece of plastic next to the sink.

**“We're not ready for this,”** she thought, but really she meant that _she_ wasn't ready for it. Countless times she’d berated her sister about abandoning her career to have children, and here she was.

"Everything good in there?" Rajan asked through the door.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, looking for an excuse for staying in the bathroom so long, so of course Lito appeared and bent his head toward the shower.

"I was just about to take a shower." Her voice barely shaking.

"Need company?"

She let the panic overwhelm her as she imagined his suggestive wiggling of eyebrows, then let Lito take over.

"I have the start of a headache, my husband." Lito also started the shower before leaving as he had come.

"Take care then, my wife."

The term of endearment made her guilt stronger, but she couldn't face him just yet.

Realising time had passed, Kala picked up the piece of plastic and blinked at it. She looked back at the rumbled paper that came with the test, compared the line on the drawing to the one on the device.

It had to have happened at the wedding. They’d been so caught up in each other, in weeks of wanting, in a dream she hadn’t believed was possible, protection hadn’t even occurred to her. 

Her breathing jerked and the walls closed in on her. **“I am _not_ panicking.”**

And just like that she was five thousand miles away. She immediately recognized Sun’s apartment and she smiled. Capheus was there too, holding a picture of the cluster. Kala closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the smell of lemon and jasmine calmed her.

"I hardly can believe it has only been three months." Kala smiled.

Three months since Whisper, one since Kala had come together with Rajan and Wolfgang. Was she really about to throw another wrench at her marriage? 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.” It always seemed like she accidentally visited in the worst moments.

"You're no bother." 

“We all need to clear our head sometimes.” Capheus briefly hugged Sun. “I should be going before the media realise I'm zoning out."

"Oh and congratulations, by the way," Kala said, knowledge of his victory suddenly reaching her conscious mind.

"You too."

Kala accepted the hug and let its soothingness reach her. Capheus was going to do well. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Sun asked once they were alone.

Kala nodded and Sun walked them to her black couch.

“I thought I still had three to five years.” Time to explore married life and do something meaningful with her degree. Time before their families’ desire for grandchildren grew into demands. Time to decide if she wanted children in the first place.

“You make it sound like a prison sentence.”

There was no judgement in her voice, but Kala felt her cheeks blush in shame. Here she was, being insensitive again. Her leg picked up the shake again.

Sun placed a hand on Kala’s knee. “What worries you exactly?”

“Everything. I know Wolfgang doesn’t want children the way I know how to assemble and shoot a gun. And this whole thing with Rajan and him is still so new. Wolfgang hasn’t even moved in yet, and already I’m changing the data. I don’t even know who the father is; Rajan will run for the hills. How could he not after everything I have thrown at him?”

Kala took a moment to take a breath, but she didn’t feel any better. Instead she looked up at Sun. Outside, a blaring police car whizzed past the apartment.

“First of all, Rajan’s not going to leave you,” Sun said with more conviction than Kala could muster. “He didn’t when he learned you were _homo sensorium_ and in love with another man, why would he now?”

Jindo begged for a cuddle so Kala caressed his head.

“Rajan loves you, and he’ll love this child as his own either way. So will Wolfgang.”

Kala knew Sun was right about Wolfgang; he would be worried about being like his father, but he wouldn’t turn his back on her. She was still worried Rajan would suddenly realise she wasn’t worth it.

“None of this was planned.”

Sun smiled and kissed Jindo as she shook his ear.

“The best things in life and love aren’t planned.” She looked up at Kala. “It doesn’t make them any less wonderful.”


	4. Nomi

Nomi dug her face into the pillow as she reeled in the bedspread over her head. What had started as a consistent headache a few days ago had now hit full force. The sunrays coming through the window didn't help the way pain was hammering into her brain.

The mattress moved and Neets hugged her softly and kissed the back of her head. "Still not feeling any better?"

Nomi groaned. Neets' presence was grounding, but didn't do anything to alleviate the cranial pressure. Nomi refused to go meet a doctor, not after the last time, and the medication Lola had brought them hadn't had any effect. She removed the covers, but kept her face in the shadow they cast.

Neets smiled and nestled into Nomi's arms. "You kept mentioning a Sophie. Should I be jealous?"

There was lightheartedness to her question, but Nomi knew part of Neets didn't think she was enough.

"Never," Nomi said as she brought their noses and foreheads together. "No one could ever come close."

An image of Sophie danced in her mind. Long black hair tied into a bun under a hair net, tears in her eyes as she cut onions and she discreetly watched the chef barking orders in French.

Nomi drew her eyebrows together. "Her name's Sophie Ishikawa; she’s a Belgian cook in Brussels."

"Sensate?"

"I think so. But it's strange, it feels a bit like visiting, but I feel things about her the way I do with my cluster. Just less--"

"Intense?" Neets offered.

"Yes. There have been others too."

She saw a young cowboy, riding a Palomino horse with friends: Ames Miller, Texan ranch owner.

They disappeared and Nomi saw a young Peruvian mother, a two-years-old boy bouncing on her left knee and a nursing newborn on her right arm. She glanced at Nomi and recognition grabbed at her: Angie Garcia.

"Baby?" Neets' voice brought her back to their place. Nomi opened her mouth to explain, but a sharp pain in her stomach interrupted her.

William Anderson, Australian banker meeting a potential client.  
Rebecca Enook, teaching her language to a group of kindergarteners in Iqaluit.

Nomi gripped at Neets' hand as she screamed. Was that what giving birth was like too? Because this was both the most wonderful and terrifying feeling in the world.

Around her, the cluster gathered. She felt strength from their presence, but it was Neets, who had caught on to what was happening and was whispering encouragement in her ear. The love and pride dancing in her eyes helped too.

Bakir Tekin, praying in a mosque in Ankara.

There was a final push of pain, then the pressure around her body suddenly left her and left Nomi panting. She leaned her head against Neets'.

"They're perfect," she whispered.

Soon, she would have to explain to her children who they were, but for now, she closed her eyes and surrendered to the exhaustion, knowing that, for once, everything was going to be alright.


End file.
